CANOE Quarterly launches in Lagos

CANOE, a quarterly luxury lifestyle magazine recently launched at the Auto Lounge in Lagos.
According to the publishers, CANOE magazine, created by the CANOE Group in Accra, will inspire a new generation of Africans with style, intelligence and creativity. Every season, this exciting full-colored magazine showcases stories on fashion, beauty, home, lifestyle, sports and business; essentially shedding light on the various dimensions of Africa’s progress, whilst simultaneously paying homage to our strong African heritage. CANOE is the International African Magazine for the global African. “We are as interested in the history as we are in the future,” explains Sefa Gohoho, CANOE’s Business Director, and one of the founders of the Canoe Group.

While CANOE is a luxury brand, the editorial in CANOE moves beyond mere consumerism. CANOE is a guide to accumulating real wealth, preserving capital and building legacies that can be passed on from generation to generation. “The Africa I know has intelligent, successful and beautiful people.” says publisher and CEO Kweku Ansah, founder of the CANOE Group. The current issues features Nicola Sackey (Winner of Miss Ghana UK 2008) on the cover. CANOE magazine will be distributed in Ghana, Nigeria, Botswana, Zambia, Kenya, South Africa, Liberia, Egypt, Gambia and Sierra Leone in Africa; the United Kingdom; and New York, Atlanta, California and Chicago in the United States of America.

Bantu

The mag on display

Event guests

Denrele

Sasha

Olisa Adibua

Ugoma of Zebra Living

This is an interesting initiative with potential, BN Readers – what do you think about this new crop of glossy Pan-African lifestyle magazines? Are they culturally relevant and will they be effective in changing the perceptions of Africa and Africans?

He is actually a budding designer and he designs all his pieces himself. Those trousers are giving me serious Balmain envy and the jacket is gorge…The boots are one buckle too far for me, but they work for him.

I love that there are still (a few!) people in naij that refuse to be fashion follow-follows. Thank God he has too strong a character to ever be swayed by the opinions of the narrow-minded.

Regarding your question at the end, I think that these magazines, in addition to other facets of the luxury industry, have a chance of making it. What you need to make a luxury industry flourish is, in part, a strong middleclass/uppermiddle class with money to spend. There appears to be a proto-middle class developing in Nigeria–people who are not rich but can holiday in London, buy blackberries, own a laptop, pay to go to the movies, buy non-pirated books, cds, etc. This group, not really the millionaires, are the ones that keep the luxury industry going.

Not to mention a growing celebrity industry that you guys at Bella Naija are doing a good job of monetizing.

If you knew the guy, you would know that he is super sweet and very,very humble and far from a poseur. This isnt an act or an affectation but a true expression of who he is.

Look at the detail on the jacket and the trousers. Its painstaking and beautiful and all done by his hand. Most people wouldnt put all those pieces together, but who says he has to be most people.

Some people arent TRYING to be different, they just ARE! These are generally the early adopters of an idea that in 3yrs time will trickle down and become acceptable to the fashion follow-follows and then they will ask for one in every colour.

“….but when someone looks like he just stinks of moth balls,butt-juice,pink-oil spray and all things musty…..look at me, i am different..there is a niche for this madness in nigeria,so i derele have chosen to be the torchbearer for this insanity”

Wow! that is a lot of venom directed at someone you dont know based on their clothing choice…remind me not to get on your bad side.lol!

If Im being honest I find women who wear Thomas Pink shirts and tight Joseph trousers accessorised with Gucci sunglasses, LV bags and a defensive scowl to cocktail parties quite offensive. It gives me the impression that they think the material cost of the items makes up for their “taste” being banal.

That is my idea of a freak…………..actually its not, because I would never use that term to describe another human being especially when we are just talking about clothes.

I think I respond to Denrele because I enjoy people who have a distinct point of view, whether it suits me or not. I have a prejudice against people I find sheepish and conformist but Im working on that cos who am I to judge